INTRODUCTION. 3 



eases of infancy and childhood ; and those whose native 

 vigour of constitution enables them to struggle through these, 

 become the victims, in later years, of diseases which cut short 

 their term of life, or deprive them of a large part of that 

 enjoyment which health alone can bring. 



!Nor is the effect of these injurious causes confined to 

 infancy, though most strikingly manifested at that period. 

 " The child is father to the man," in body as well as in mind ; 

 but the vigorous health of the adult is too often wasted and 

 destroyed by excesses, whether in sensual indulgence, in 

 bodily labour, or in mental exertion, to which the very feeling 

 of buoyancy and energy often acts as the incentive ; and the 

 strength which, carefully husbanded and sustained, might 

 have kept the body and mind in activity and enjoyment to 

 the full amount of its allotted period of "threescore years 

 and ten," is too frequently dissipated in early manhood. Or, 

 again, the want of the necessary conditions for the support of 

 life, the warmth, food, and air, on which the body depends 

 for its continued sustenance, no less than for its early deve- 

 lopment, may cause its early dissolution, even where the 

 individual is guiltless of having impaired its vigour by his 

 own transgressions. 



These statements are not theoretical merely : they are based 

 upon facts drawn from observations carried on upon the most 

 extensive scale. Wherever we find those conditions, which the 

 Physiologist asserts to be most favourable to the preservation 

 of the health of the body, most completely fulfilled, there do 

 sickness and mortality least prevail A few facts will place 

 this subject in a striking light. " The average mortality of 

 infants among rich and poor in this country (and with little 

 variation throughout Europe) is about one in every four and 

 a-half before the end of the first year of existence. So directly, 

 however, is infant life influenced by good or bad management, 

 that, about a century ago, the workhouses of London presented 

 the astounding result of twenty-three deaths in every twenty- 

 four infants under the age of one year. For a long time this 

 frightful devastation was allowed to go on, as beyond the reach 

 of human remedy. But when at last an improved system of 

 management was adopted in consequence of a parliamentary 

 inquiry having taken place, the proportion of deaths was 

 speedily reduced from 2,600 to 450 in a year. Here, then, 



B 2 



